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How to Watch Videos Offline on Android Devices

Nowadays many people prefer watching videos online. It's much more convenient from many points of views. First of all, you don’t need to keep huge files reducing your hard drive space. Secondly, you can start watching a movie on your TV and then switch to smartphone or tablet. Thirdly, many movies are available online only, and it's pretty difficult to save them on PC.These are three main pluses of online video streaming. However, there is always a fly in the ointment. When you are on vacations, using mobile Internet may cost you a great sum. In case you need to fly for many hours, there is also no chance to stream a movie. Another trouble is that your favorite YouTube video might be deleted by its owner. And finally, a slow Internet connection can be one more reason to save videos for offline viewing.That’s where you need to know a good way to save online videos and watch them without connecting your device to the Internet. Here are several options to choose from.

Freemake Video Downloader

Freemake Video Downloader is a simple yet powerful tool to save YouTube content: single videos, playlists, and channels. The software operates on Windows based PCs and laptops.

Go to YouTube or any other supported website and choose a video you want to save. Keep in mind that the program, doesn’t save paid YouTube videos;

Copy YouTube video URL and paste it in Freemake Video Downloader;

In a new window, select the necessary video quality;

Then choose “Convert to” and select “Android” in the drop-down menu

Wait a bit till the video appears in a specified folder.

To download a channel or a playlist, follow the same guide. Just remember that a supported playlist has the playlist word in the URL. The software doesn’t download sets of related videos.

You may set Freemake to always download videos in the same quality, format and to the same destination folder. To do it, enable “One-click download mode” in the top right corner of the software and select the necessary settings.

When you are done with all the videos, transfer them onto your Android portable device.

You may use a default Android video player or download VLC, a free multimedia player available for all operating systems. It accepts a great number of video formats and codecs that may not be supported by a default app.

Dropbox

For those who don’t want to bother with cables for transferring videos from PC to a phone or tablet, there is one more option to go for, a cloud service. You may choose Dropbox or any other you like. The advantage of this option is that the majority of cloud services can be used on any platform: Windows, Mac OS, Linux, iOS, and Android. Let’s take Dropbox as an example.

The procedure is quite simple:

Go to Dropbox official site and create a free account (if you don’t have any);

Download and install a desktop app;

Go to Google Play and search for the Dropbox app;

Install in on your Android phone or tablet;

Sign in to your account from both desktop and mobile apps;

Add the video files to a desktop Dropbox folder. Please note that a free account space is limited to 5 GB. If necessary, you can acquire more space;

Now run the mobile Dropbox app;

Find and open your movie in the app;

Choose the “Make it available offline” option.

The movie will be saved for offline viewing with the app. When you want to watch it, simply run the app and choose the video from offline files. Having fulfilled all the steps above only one time, next time you’ll need simply add the movie into a desktop folder and then save it in the app.

YouTube App

YouTube has recently released an official Android app with an option to download videos. The download button is available right under the video.

To get the movie on your Android, you should:

Go to the Google Play and find a YouTube app;

Install the app on a smartphone or tablet;

Search for a video that you’d like to save;

Open the video and tap on the gray circle with a white arrow;

Choose a video quality;

Wait until the downloading process is completed.

To watch the video, tap the Library tab in the app. Unfortunately, not all the videos are available for downloading. So if you find such a movie, you’ll have to save it with Freemake or an alternative software. One more drawback of the YouTube app is that it doesn’t download playlists or channels. Besides, the downloaded videos will be available inside the YouTube app for 48 hours. Then it will be automatically deleted.

Here were three simple ways to get the videos for offline watching. It's difficult to say which one is the best since everything depends on your scope. If you want to save a video from YouTube to keep it forever, then you should choose Freemake Video Downloader. For already downloaded videos, ripped DVDs and Blu-rays, you will be OK with a Dropbox option. If you simply want to watch a couple of movies during your flight, install the YouTube app.